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roguesquirrel

The Fallen
Oct 29, 2017
5,483
Im not going to trust a Meta company that they have "the data" on video being the hot thing all the users crave with a ten foot pole lmao. Fool me once with that bullshit
 

Royalan

I can say DEI; you can't.
Moderator
Oct 24, 2017
11,921
Companies of this scale spend a lot of resources on user research and building products that users want. Thats part of the data. Its always tricky to balance actual numbers against qualitative opinions though and sometimes they do mess up.

I'd also argue that those other companies crashed simply because they weren't able to monetize. Unfortunately, money is the most important metric used to validate decisions. Facebook isn't cool anymore but I think its still their biggest money maker due to their insane user base.

Personally I think big tech companies now spend too much time listening to users, which is why it feels like these companies aren't innovating and just chasing trends. Except for the whole Metaverse thing. I dont know if theres any consumer demand for it but they sure are trying to make it happen.

This is a good point. Facebook ushered in monetization in a way that no social media platform before it managed to.

Am I the only person who uses Flickr?

I've recently returned to Flickr in a big way, after being away from the platform for years due, largely, to IG.

I wish Flickr were in a better position to capitalize, because I love everything about the latest version of their app and how they treat photos.
 

Dogstar

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,977
I don't think I've ever heard anyone complain about Instagram's UI before but they just keep changing it for some reason.

It seems like change for the sake of change mostly. I don't think they've made one change since I've been using it that made me think ' ah that's much better'

Basically the pained look of my avatar is how I must look scrolling through what Meta presents me with now.
 

stersauce

Prophet of Truth
Avenger
Oct 28, 2017
3,763
san jose, ca
My feed has been "post from someone I actually follow, sponsored post, suggested post, sponsored post, post from someone I actually follow, two suggested posts in a row" and then it repeats like that. Are you telling me it's gonna get worse?
 

lenovox1

Member
Oct 26, 2017
8,995
My feed has been "post from someone I actually follow, sponsored post, suggested post, sponsored post, post from someone I actually follow, two suggested posts in a row" and then it repeats like that. Are you telling me it's gonna get worse?

Yeah, it's going to get even more video centric. Though most of the changes have been gradually rolled out over the past year.
 

DazzlerIE

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,756
It seems like change for the sake of change mostly. I don't think they've made one change since I've been using it that made me think ' ah that's much better'

Basically the pained look of my avatar is how I must look scrolling through what Meta presents me with now.

Message boards are one of the last bastions of online chat that isn't governed by algorithms and sponsored content

Even Reddit is infested with this shit now
 

Croc Man

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,546
Message boards are one of the last bastions of online chat that isn't governed by algorithms and sponsored content

Even Reddit is infested with this shit now
I'm really hoping that some sort of mass repopulate the forums day takes off.
People take a break from the big apps for 24 hours and try to revitalise remaining forums with low traffic.
 

DarthWalden

Prophet of Truth
The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
6,030
I'll be honest, 90% of the time I used instagram its to check peoples reels, I barely even scroll through the feed anymore.

I follow an influencer who did a poll on this probably a year ago, she was wondering why engagement was so low on her photo posts and the poll results showed ~80% of people prefer to check the reel over the posts.

So I wouldn't be surprised if Instagram was just updating their UI to cater to what the audience is actually using Instagram for.

I think it fills a different void than TikTok which is primarily puts random videos in your feed. I know its creeping into tik tok territory with the random reels but
with instagram I can tailor exactly which reels I see and choose to engage with them or not and if there is nothing exciting I can just close the app.
 

bm1677

Member
Oct 28, 2017
174
Instagram has gone down the toilet. Has been the only social media I use after cutting out FB 2 years ago (and by that I mean follow a select few friends to see pictures). I now check it once a week or so and literally every other post is an ad or a suggested post from some rando account I have zero interest in following or interacting with. Absolute dogshit platform now.
 
Oct 25, 2017
2,956
Important video:


View: https://twitter.com/mosseri/status/1551890839584088065?s=21&t=bTLREbpzcDueL965Rg1qaA

Instagram has the data and they know the whole scope of their users so I can't say I disagree with the decisions being made 🤷‍♂️ It's just become a product for a different kind of user, these are sensible product decisions tbh.


I mean, he sells it well, but no, these changes are definitely not helping small creators, they're destroying them.

Unless, by small creators, he means douchebags making algorithmically successful content.

Use the trending songs or do the trending dances or follow the trending comedic formulas and bam you win!

Do anything interesting or unique or creative or interesting [that doesn't follow any of the algorithmic trends], you get nothing.
 

Teuthex

Member
May 31, 2019
448
it's terrible being an artist on IG atm if most of your content is static

source: me and my other illustrator chums
Yep. I have an exhibition coming up at the end of this year and it's getting me down. I will do some work in progress videos, but with video, it is harder to compete against the polish of the more "influencer" artists.

I also think it must suck for most smaller real-world businesses. Photographs are easy to take and a small business could have a fairy polished and viable social media presence. To project a similar brand identity with videos is more difficult, to the point where it might just not be worth the effort involved.
 
Oct 25, 2017
2,956
Yep. I have an exhibition coming up at the end of this year and it's getting me down. I will do some work in progress videos, but with video, it is harder to compete against the polish of the more "influencer" artists.

I also think it must suck for most smaller real-world businesses. Photographs are easy to take and a small business could have a fairy polished and viable social media presence. To project a similar brand identity with videos is more difficult, to the point where it might just not be worth the effort involved.

As a small business owner [multi-brand high fashion retailer] - this change is becoming SUPER difficult to navigate.

When dealing with 20+ different designers, it's nigh on impossible to create video content to promote each one, and every delivery from every designer.

It's asking for resources we simply don't have.

Plus videos don't always make sense for promoting this sort of stuff.

I'm transitioning to reels as much as possible, but I literally don't have the financial or biological resources to keep up with it.
 

Lump

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,956
If Meta is successful in lobbying the government to ban or cripple TikTok, then this is a shrewd move to make them the default life raft of all the people that are going to have to leave TikTok and find somewhere else to go.

If Meta cannot manage to do that, then they've ruined their own app for almost no gain.

Seems like a gamble hinging on that one outcome to me.
 

The Nightsky

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,542
Who cares what the data says when 50% of users are bots.

Most actual humans I know have drastically reduced their Insta useage because every update makes it worse. Even when a post gets "engagement" so much of it is just spam.
 

Kompis

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,021
I don't understand Instagram. I've tried to use it but I usually only get one picture at the top from my friends and then it's just scrolling ads forever.
Am I not using it correct?
 

thermopyle

Member
Nov 8, 2017
2,982
Los Angeles, CA
Haven't even posted to my IG since 2018. Me and most of the people I follow just post on stories so this impacting my feed (cute animals, skits, and hot models) doesn't really bother me lol
 

SRG01

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,014
Right now?

Post short form content as reels, like behind the scenes stuff or stuff about your pet.

Create long form videos utilizing your interests and skills in photography and hashtag and tag when appropriate.

Curate the people you follow.

Still post your photos, but know that that's not the #1 way you'll be discovered unless you're a "hot" influencer.

The problem with all of these suggestions is that there are *way* better platforms than IG if I wanted to use short/long form videos for self promotion. And that's if I'm actually interested in videography in the first place...

I still do and so do others in the Hangout photography thread. I'm seeing a lot of posts today recommeding it to people, hopefully the userbase picks up.

As mentioned above, Flickr's social is terrible. Self-promotion and discovery are also hard too.
 

hydruxo

â–˛ Legend â–˛
Member
Oct 25, 2017
20,409
Instagram has slowly morphed into a disaster to navigate over the years. Your main feed is mostly nothing but ads and promoted posts now so I get on there and scroll for a few minutes and see maybe two or three of my friends' posts. Rest is bullshit from other people I don't even follow.
 

Dice

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,205
Canada
Even Kylie Jenner agrees!
I'd love to think someone with 360 million followers would be listened to. T_T
Screen_Shot_2022_07_25_at_3.48.37_PM.png
 

Haunted

Banned
Nov 3, 2017
2,737
everyone complaining about this is just old

get with it*



*"it" meaning to ape the most popular app last month in an attempt to ride its coattails
 
Jul 27, 2021
436
United Kingdom
If you don't like it, you're simply not their target audience anymore. They can't make as much of a profit off you anymore. It's honestly time for you to delete the app.

I mean you can spend 30 seconds on a video but 3 seconds on a photo. If you were creating an app, why WOULDN'T you want to make an app that has people more hooked on it than three competition?
 

Addi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,223
Even Kylie Jenner agrees!
I'd love to think someone with 360 million followers would be listened to. T_T
Screen_Shot_2022_07_25_at_3.48.37_PM.png

Posted as a story though, haha

Edit: I do think stories has been a reason why post of images has gone down a lot. You don't post a pic of your lunch in your feed anymore. I know I rarely post on my own profile, mostly stories.
 
Last edited:
Oct 27, 2017
1,427
Their thinking on this is really telling. They are saying us they'd love to put more friends content on our feeds, but there's not enough friend content being produced...not even a glimmer of awareness to the idea that the feed shouldn't be a never ending scroll of content.

If you want to make any social media platform 'good' just remove never ending feeds.
 

Frodo

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
4,338
Posted as a story though, haha

Edit: I do think stories has been a reason why post of images has gone down a lot. You don't post a pic of your lunch in your feed anymore. I know I rarely post on my own profile, mostly stories.

|I'm not on Instagram anymore, but before I left I stopped posting pictures because I would always get very few interactions on pictures as Instagram was probably not showing my pictures on followers' timelines. I would get several hundred more views in stories than if I posted a picture, never mind reactions and comments. So it is really Instagram's fault...
 
Oct 25, 2017
20,205
This pivot to video is just wild because I have my phone on mute pretty much 24/7. Probably very old man yells at cloud but for some reason the idea of scrolling non stop videos with sound constantly changing is jarring for me

Has a website actually IMPROVED how it looks with UI changes? It seems like a universal constant that websites just get shittier and shittier looking over time.

This isn't just a simple UI change though, it's a functional change in how the social network worked and was used. It's basically like Digg 2.0
 

Sho_Nuff82

Member
Nov 14, 2017
18,408
|I'm not on Instagram anymore, but before I left I stopped posting pictures because I would always get very few interactions on pictures as Instagram was probably not showing my pictures on followers' timelines. I would get several hundred more views in stories than if I posted a picture, never mind reactions and comments. So it is really Instagram's fault...

I now make stories to advertise to my followers that I'm making a new post. I follow a few artists who do the same. I'm just a normal poster but it still seems like the only way to get eyes on a new static photo.
 

Sho_Nuff82

Member
Nov 14, 2017
18,408
If you don't like it, you're simply not their target audience anymore. They can't make as much of a profit off you anymore. It's honestly time for you to delete the app.

I mean you can spend 30 seconds on a video but 3 seconds on a photo. If you were creating an app, why WOULDN'T you want to make an app that has people more hooked on it than three competition?

The problem is that fb chased "high-value user interaction time" at the expense of overall usability, and it permanently cut off their growth potential and now the platform is slowly dying. The start of the "maximizing profit" phase for instagram is similarly the beginning of the end.
 

Mr_Zombie

Member
Oct 27, 2017
971
Poland
If you don't like it, you're simply not their target audience anymore. They can't make as much of a profit off you anymore. It's honestly time for you to delete the app.

I mean you can spend 30 seconds on a video but 3 seconds on a photo. If you were creating an app, why WOULDN'T you want to make an app that has people more hooked on it than three competition?

This is something I don't understand:
Spending less time on a photo means you can see *more* photos in the same amount of time it would took you to watch a 30s video. Sure, with videos I will have the app opened longer, but I will eventually see less content.

With photos you just need a single glance to see if the stuff is relevant to your interests and decide whether you want to click on it or not. Believe it or not, this is how I ended up clicking, following and even buy stuff from profiles on Instagram that offered handmade toys, ornaments or art. Videos don't work like that. Usually I don't even bother launching videos because either I don't have time to watch them, I don't know whether it's worth it, or I can't/don't want to launch something that requires audio at the moment.
 

RustyNails

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
24,586
So how hard is it to implement a "my circle only" button and "everyone else" button? I'd figure when people are up to date on their friends and family they can click the other button to see what's going on based on their interests etc.
 

Kingdizzi

Banned
Aug 11, 2019
745
TikTok is the good shit, I fucking love it. Instagram and Facebook had its time, you're never on top forever.

I'm just suprised at how quickly TikTok has taken over, I don't think I've been on Insta in over a year. It's just great to see, fuckin Meta.
 

Mafro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,364
So how hard is it to implement a "my circle only" button and "everyone else" button? I'd figure when people are up to date on their friends and family they can click the other button to see what's going on based on their interests etc.
It's already there, you have to tap the arrow on the top left above the stories.
 

RustyNails

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
24,586
It's already there, you have to tap the arrow on the top left above the stories.
Huh. How come folks are complaining about random vids when they're trying to keep up to date with their social circles? Sorry I don't use any social media. Have a dormant fb account from 2005 to lurk old friends and twitter to just lurk news.
 

Polk

Avenger
Oct 26, 2017
4,213
This is something I don't understand:
Spending less time on a photo means you can see *more* photos in the same amount of time it would took you to watch a 30s video. Sure, with videos I will have the app opened longer, but I will eventually see less content.

With photos you just need a single glance to see if the stuff is relevant to your interests and decide whether you want to click on it or not. Believe it or not, this is how I ended up clicking, following and even buy stuff from profiles on Instagram that offered handmade toys, ornaments or art. Videos don't work like that. Usually I don't even bother launching videos because either I don't have time to watch them, I don't know whether it's worth it, or I can't/don't want to launch something that requires audio at the moment.
The problem is, they don't want photos with sunset or things. They want people. And videos with people are way more engaging than photos with people.
 

Mafro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,364
Huh. How come folks are complaining about random vids when they're trying to keep up to date with their social circles? Sorry I don't use any social media. Have a dormant fb account from 2005 to lurk old friends and twitter to just lurk news.
Wouldn't surprise me if it's because it's relatively well "hidden" at the top of the screen and people don't notice it. You don't get any ads or stuff from people you're not following forced into the Favourites feed, just posts from people you've added. You can't set it as the default feed like you can with the latest tweets one on Twitter though, and it doesn't show Stories at the top either.